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Boris Sanchez Tells Us What Our Ears Lied About, and Matthew Dowd Looks for His Free Speech Sympathy

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 19, 2025
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Low-Octane Gaslighting – CNN

  • My ears are prevaricating again!

At CNN, they are gradually edging away from reframing the background of the Charlie Kirk killer, and moving to reframing what Jimmy Kimmel said…about the Charlie Kirk murder. Which – ironically – involved Kimmel reframing the background of Kirk’s assassin.

Boris Sanchez tries to tell us what Kimmel said, but he makes one small misstep: He first plays Kimmel’s actual quote on tape. But that does not stop the CNN expert from telling us that we did not hear what the TV host spoke of in the clip he just played.

Matching Media Memorandum – ROLLING STONE

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  • You…you all know we can read what was written there, correct?!

Matching the flawed logic of Sanchez, but in printed form, is Rolling Stone, which also attempts to tell us that Kimmel did not say what he said. And they commit the exact same error as Boris.

They provide the full quote from Kimmel and try to tell us that he said something else:

KIMMEL: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

The magazine tells us that this comment is “slightly ambiguous,” and “he did not actually say on ABC that the alleged killer was a MAGA member.” Just to help out writers Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng, when Jimmy says “anything other,” he is being definitive that the shooter IS part of MAGA.

This, dear readers, is what we in the media business refer to as “desperation.”

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – CNN

  • You cannot complain after punching the button marked BASEMENT.

Brian Stelter thinks he just concocted the best analogy ever to describe the press these days.

Now, we are not looking to correct Stelter with his metaphor. We actually agree that they are on that downward trajectory. The thing that Brian misses is what we have been cataloguing all this time: The press chose to get on that elevator, they have hit all of the buttons to go lower, and they refuse to get off at any point, and maybe start climbing the stairs back up toward credibility.

Other than that, brilliant comparison on your part there, Tater!

Reporting on the Mirror – (formerly) MSNBC

  • Comparing yourself to Kimmel is not helping your cause, Matt.

Recently disposed pundit Matthew Dowd was on a vidcast with longtime disregarded pundit Katie Couric, to talk about his ouster last week from MSNBC, after Dowd made gross remarks about Charlie Kirk right after the shooting took place.

It is delicious to see Dowd whining that all of this defense is coming out in favor of Jimmy Kimmel, yet he has not received any such support. At all. 

Prose & Contradiction – THE BULWARK

  • Now, about those who cannot tolerate pushback…

In a gem of oblivious contradictions, Sam Stein weighed in on the Kimmel outrage and had a dismissive comment for those who cannot tolerate opposing viewpoints.

One gleaming example could be those who want to avoid being criticized for their tweets, so they turn off the ability to comment – which was exactly what Stein does with his condescending tweet.

Stealth Story Evolution – MSNBC

  • Will she next be reporting on her own crackpot reporting?

We feel the need to dredge up a past entry from the designated MSNBC online and conspiracy correspondent, Brandy Zadrozny. This is the same B.Z. who said there was no evidence of people online celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. Here, we also have her descending into conspiracy realms herself, as she suggested that his killer might have been someone on the right who intentionally engraved the bullet casings with leftist insignia in order to throw off investigators.